Hermiones Crisis
by Angel Ally
Summary: Hermiones on the run. The Death Eaters are given orders to kill the top student. She has to get away. Before its too late ...
1. Escape

Chapter One  
  
Hermione Granger threw her various belongings into a trunk. Her hair was no longer brown and curly, she had dyed it blonde and had it straightened. She was wearing contact lenses, though she didn't need them, to make her eyes look blue. She had to get away. Fast.  
  
She had known they were coming for weeks now, since the restoration of her time-turner. The trail of devastation that they were leaving behind was lengthening rapidly, and they were getting closer, she could sense it.   
  
Hermione had recieved the letter barely an hour ago from the Hogwarts headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, to warn her. She was in danger. She had to leave.   
  
A broomstick from Dumbledore was hovering outside her bedroom window. The dark night was slowly lightening, and the red sun was just visible on the horizon. Harry's invisibility cloak was lying untouched on the bed. She slammed her case shut with a loud click, and pulled the invivibility cloak over her. The note she had scribbled frantically, not up to her usual standard, was pinned to her door.   
  
'Goodbye, Mother, Father,' she whispered in her head as a farewell, as she cast a lightweight charm on her trunk, 'I'm so sorry, but I must.' And she climbed onto her broomstick and slowly drifted, invisible, over the streets of Bristol and into the early morning sky.  
  
*  
  
They were trooping along the outskirts of Bristol. All masked, wands pointed at any muggle that stood in their way. Lucius Malfoy in the lead. Their orders had been direct -   
"Kill the mudblood. Kill Hermione Granger."  
  
*  
  
Harry Potter awoke with a vivid pain in his scar. He had experienced another dream - another terrible, foul dream, and they nearly all came true and happened. Or was happening, in this case.  
  
He had dreamed about the Death Eaters - they were at Bristol, they were destroying everything, killing any muggles ahead of them. Fires had been blazing, and they were laughing, cursing and jeering.  
  
He didn't feel at all well. He decided it was the fact that he knew this was most likely happening now. He got up, walked to the large window opposite his camp-bed and opened the blinds. The sun had just risen, and the sky was a pale orange, and here and there were lumps of cloud - or was it smoke?  
  
He heard a stirring beside him, and Ron Weasley awoke, yawning and rubbing his eyes. His bright red hair was messy, and his eyes were puffy. He sat up on his orange Chudley Cannons bedspread, wondering why Harry was awake at four am, and had woken him up by opening the blinds.  
  
"Hi," murmered Ron sleepily, "What did you wake me up?"  
  
"I had another nightmare. About the Death Eaters and Volde..." Explained Harry casually, but Ron stopped him by giving him the look that said Don't say the Name!  
  
"So what?" said Ron, "You didn't have to wake me up!"  
  
"I didn't mean to," said Harry quickly, trailing over to Hedwig and Pigwideon, who were fighting over last nights remaining owl treat, "I just opened the window to get some air."  
  
"Yeah," Ron yawned again, but now seemed fully awake, "Hey, d'you want to sneak into Fred and Georges room and nick some joke stuff?"  
  
Harry nodded enthusiastically, opening his trunk, "Hold on, I'll get the invisibility cloak ..." He trailed off, and ripping the bedsheets off his camp-bed.  
  
"What?" said Ron, "Where is it?"  
  
"Thats just it," said Harry, "I can't find it ..." 


	2. Shock

Hermione Granger had been soaring through the early morning for at least twenty minutes. She did not know where she was heading, or what she was going to do with her future. All that her mind could currently focus on was escaping from Bristol.   
  
She had known something like this would happen, long before she had been reunited with the time-turner. She was a likely target:- friend of Harry Potter, Voldemorts enemy, a Muggleborn, a member of the Order of the Pheonix - the force defending the world from Lord Voldemorts evil grasp. She had already sussed that by killing her, Voldemort would be able to lure innocent Harry to search for herself. Would he find her?  
  
She shuddered, and focused her restricted vision through the cloak to below her. She was still in Bristol - the Firebolt Dumbledore had sent over was a little faulty and painfully slow. With every jerk the broom made as she swerved above the city her heart leapt. Remembering the time when Harrys broom had been cursed, Hermione realised she was vunerable to attack, invisible or not. She soared upwards, with jolty feeling in the pit of her stomach. How can Harry do this so often, she thought, as she struggled to keep her balance.  
  
And then she saw them, like she had in her minds eye as she had left her home. Raging, furious fires boardered the outskirts of the area. Thick black smoke drifted upwards, surrounding her, engulfing her. She began to cough.  
  
Hermione clutched her hand over her mouth and took long, deep breaths as she shot higher above the scene. Her asthmatic condition had caused that to happen. Pityful. She had almost had a fit during the first task watching the dragons in the Triwizard Tournament.  
  
Angry mobs of wizards swarmed the place. The Dark Mark hovered above them. It was right in front of her broom tip. She shuddered again, and passed through it.   
  
The broom wavered.  
  
And then the invisibility cloak swept off her as she plunged down through the clouds and smoke into the smouldering ash that represented southern Bristol.  
  
*   
  
"Now calm down, Harry dear," smiled Mrs Weasley comfortingly, "It'll turn up soon, don't worry."  
  
Harry was found it difficult to eat his porridge. No matter how the Weasleys tried to cheer him up, nothing could take Harry's mind of the fact that his Invisibility Cloak was missing. Was it connected with his dream?  
  
His spoon swooped in and out of the sloppy breakfast before him, flicking Percy small flecks of grey goo.  
  
Ron wandered over to the wireless in the corner atop the lamp and switched it on. The Wierd Sisters new song blared through the kitchen of the burrow.  
  
For five minutes everyone covered their ears exept for Ron, Fred and George, who looked like nodding dogs in the back of a car. Once the song had finished, there was a small discussion of air congestion, and then the news.  
  
"And top headlines across England today," announced the reporter, "The Quidditch season is dawning, and the first match against Mexico is to be played this upcoming Sunday. What do you think the outcome will be, Markus?..."  
  
They continued in this tone for some time, until, "and top headline, the devastation of fires and mass destruction in Bristol. Rumoured to be the work of the Death Eaters, the Dark Mark is there and there are muggles and muggle-borns being tortured there. Scary stuff, eh!"  
  
"Oh my!" Cried Mrs Weasley, "Do we know anyone from Bristol, Arthur?"  
  
"No," replied Mr Weasley, obviously trying to sound calm but failing miserably, "only Galidus Mugbuggy, but he lives in a floating castle above the river."  
  
Ron and Harry glanced at eachother. They were thinking the same thing. Where does Hermione live?  
  
Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out one of Hermione's previous letters. He looked in the top right hand corner for an address, and gasped in shock.  
  
Bristol. Hermione lived in Bristol. 


End file.
